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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26516917">Tournament Of Calamity</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Savy123xp/pseuds/Savy123xp'>Savy123xp</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Tournament Of Calamity</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Character Death, Forced Relationship, Gen, Horror, Humor, Multiverse, Ponder</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-20 09:21:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>17,454</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26516917</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Savy123xp/pseuds/Savy123xp</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate world sees a continuous stream of natural disasters known as SPLICE fissures. Humanity has adapted to the threat, the population regularly retreating to specialized shelters and possessing Augmented Reality systems containing an artificial intelligence known as SAMS (Splice Anomaly Management System). The Splice Fissures are dangerously volatile, and very little research has been conducted on how or why they occur. What is known, is that a statistically significant amount also contain what is known as "Fallout," biological life from outside of Earth's known species. 99% of this material is killed on impact, meaning almost all fallout is found dead long before a Splice has even concluded.</p><p>What are the Splice anomalies, what causes them, and is the world prepared in the event Fallout begins to survive?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Malie &amp; John Sarah &amp; John Cold/John</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>An explosion rocked the room softly, sending tainted speckles of dust down from the rafters. The particles shimmered in the golden beams of light, struggling through the wooden blinds. On a bed in the far corner, a figure shifted uncomfortably, pale hands grasping at the covers. The room<br/>
shuttered again, a thunderous roar spreading through the ground.</p><p>Dull green eyes snapped into view as the figure tumbled from the bed, hands flailing to catch the floor and roll them hastily to their feet. They checked their wrist, skin paling further. They scrambled across the carpet with frantic movements, wood of the door snapping against the wall with flying splinters as they tore outside into the hallway. The harsh beeping started up moments later, ear piercing shriek emanating from<br/>
smoke alarm-like fixtures overhead.</p><p>"John?!"</p><p>A petrified form was already standing at the other end of the hallway,<br/>
massive shirt draping down to her knees.</p><p>"It's alright."</p><p>John didn't slow down, skidding to a stop and imputing a command into a small wall mounted panel.</p><p>"Lilly, get the key."</p><p>The foundation of the house shook with another tremor, the alarms dying down as everything cut out with a jagged, electronic beep. The house went dark. Lilly’s contacts shimmered with a metallic whirl as red tinted emergency diodes activated, spilling light into her view. The sunlight behind her faded rapidly into a sickly orange, before being snuffed out. It wasn't sunlight at all.</p><p> </p><p>Her flashlight gaze glanced off the digital clock in the kitchen, time frozen<br/>
in place.</p><p>2:30 in the morning.</p><p>Her hands were slippery with sweat, doors and cabinets flying open as<br/>
her search grew more frantic. Her wrist watch blared a dead black encircled with red text, screech silencing as she slapped at it haphazardly. She didn't want to look, but her eyes caught the number regardless. Something she wouldn't have believed even if she had had all the time in the world to<br/>
double check it.</p><p>200 feet.</p><p>The windows split with the next vibration and flash of light, glass crawling with necrosis as the horizon light again flickered, clouds of warped dust vaulting past. Dishes within the cupboards were lobbed against the far wall of their containers, rattling with deafening clatter. Lilly flinched backwards, hands flying up to shield her face from several whipping shards of shattered glassware.</p><p>At the other end of the house, John slapped the control panel back closed in a cold sweat, again checking his wrist.</p><p>"Immediate Vicinity – Splice Light Visible."</p><p>He input a command to stop the beeping, rushing into the kitchen.</p><p>"I can't find it!"</p><p>Lilly's voice was strangled with mute terror, her shaking legs barely able to support her.</p><p>"It's alright! Where did she leave it?!"</p><p>He tried to remain calm, immediately going for the cabinets she hadn't already checked, before yelling upwards.</p><p>"SAMS, route us to the emergency line! Danna Matthews now!"</p><p>"Dial Danna Matthews now?"</p><p>SAMS’ voice glitched through interference, an off kilter female tone.</p><p>"Yes to confirm."</p><p>"Yes!"</p><p>The drawer clattered to John's feet as he tore it out.</p><p>"Emergency line!"</p><p>The voice hissed with static pops, John's eyes flicking nervously to the hatch door, archaic LED panel shimmering with a dull blue hue.</p><p>"I'm sorry," SAMS picked back up, "It appears your area is experiencing a large volume of emergency calls at the moment. Connection could not be completed. Yes to retry."</p><p>The outside light grew more intense, rumbles culminating into a sub bass drone.</p><p>"Lilly, try the input override," John snapped to tear her from her petrified trance, "I'll keep looking. Hurry!"</p><p>She quickly nodded her head, feet softly clapping against the ground as she ran to the metallic hatch. Everything was dead silent now, not even the raining dust making the slightest sound as the percussions dropped below human hearing.</p><p>"SAMS, input override splice cellar." Lilly commanded with a weak voice.</p><p>UI glitched through her contact lenses, AR interface mapping to the keypad and highlighting her options.</p><p>"Splice Anomaly Inbound." Red text was permanently burned into the lower third of her gaze, "Proceed Immediately to Safety."</p><p>"Request incomplete." SAMS’s voice crackled after a second to buffer, "Your area is experiencing a disaster. Input override unavailable at this time. Manual entry only."</p><p>Decay rotted the air outside, debris tearing at the windows and glass. John's fists clenched. Before one more wave of distortions split through the house, a shimmering key made a harsh clatter as it tumbled across the reflective floor.</p><p>“Got it!” He cried, kicking his foot sideways to slam the key across the tiles.</p><p>Lilly’s UI tracked the object poorly through her vision, eye lights flickering as she scrambled down to catch it. The hatch shuttered with automated locks and she stabbed the key into its socket and twisted.</p><p>John was quick to clamber across the kitchen in the darkness, faint light from his own contacts doing little against the oppressive gloom closing in. The dancing lights on the horizon seared down to a violent black pinpoint, scenery being vaulted into the murky sky. </p><p>The hatch slammed behind the duo.</p><p> </p><p>From inside the room, the door howled with agony, metal creaking and groaning with massive pressure as the final explosion was felt rather than heard. The air skewed sideways, John and Lilly’s stomachs dropping as if displaced from their bodies. They staggered down the ladder.</p><p>John winced as his feet touched solid ground, as he blinking heavily to turn off his eye lights in the fluorescent room. Tiny motors within his lenses worked to reorient his visual perception to the tilted world. He glanced over to Lilly beside him. </p><p>She breathed heavily, hands on her knees as she bent over, chest rising and falling as if unable to catch up to her heart rate. The key was clutched so tight in her hands her knuckles were bleached corpse white.</p><p>“I thought she might have taken it with her accidentally,” John laughed as he<br/>
pointed to the tiny key and caught his own breath, “Like, she accidentally put it on her key ring or something, haha….ha.”</p><p>“Way too close for comfort."</p><p>Lilly shook her head, suppressing a relieved chuckle as well.</p><p>“We should update Optical... Let people know we’re safe.”</p><p>“Are we, though?”</p><p>John grinned, gazing around the room with amused contempt. </p><p>Small metallic shelves were severely understocked with rations, an open bag of chips just about the only thing left. The room was in surprising disarray for all its clean white walls and reflective chrome flooring. </p><p>“I’m updating it for you,” Lilly nervously laughed, cautiously sinking backwards onto a dull grey sofa in the middle of the space. “Some people actually worry about you, you know.” </p><p>Her irises danced with the AR text display as she scrolled with her vision, staring up at the ceiling.</p><p>“If this Splice knocks out our internet again,” John just smirked to himself, slowly walking over to a small refrigerator in the corner. “I don’t know sis, we might not survive. Don’t post too soon.”</p><p>“Done,” she retorted to the ceiling. “Looks like you’ll just have to deal.”</p><p>She rolled on to her stomach to smile at John, skinny limbs jutting out like<br/>
toothpicks from her baggy sleepwear. John recoiled, hands flying into a karate stance as he opened the fridge door.</p><p>“You drank everything!?”</p><p>He was aghast, eyes darting like daggers to her now paling figure.</p><p>“We have drinks in our regular fridge, you know!”</p><p>"You never take me to the store! Was I supposed to wait for Mom to get<br/>
back?”</p><p>“Yes!”</p><p>John chopped at her head with a comical motion, though the impact was<br/>
real.</p><p>“She’s only gone for, like, another month! You can’t just raid our Splice Shelter!”</p><p>“Gah!” She squeaked, squirming under his hand with fists flailing. “You do it all the time!”</p><p>“At least I replace it later!”</p><p>He chopped her again, far lighter.</p><p>“At least...”</p><p>He frowned.</p><p>“I mean . . . sometimes.”</p><p>His eyes narrowed, gaze flicking to the sides.</p><p>“Maybe if we stocked it with actual water like normal people.”</p><p>Lilly pouted, face down in the sofa cushions.</p><p>“2:32am, December 18th, 2034.” The update message finally flashed to the side of John’s gaze, focusing into view as he looked to it. “A 5.3 Magnitude Splice Anomaly has Occurred in the Jeffco District. Lilly Matthews has confirmed her safety.”</p><p>He laughed, dismissing this and the subsequent messaging about his own safety being confirmed. The inside hatch door light periodically rose and fell, bathing the room in unnatural red hues.</p><p>“5.3 Emergency in Effect,” The glowing text read. “Manual Latch Disabled. Do Not Attempt to Open Door.”</p><p>***</p><p>“So you’re quarantined, right?”</p><p>Sarah’s face lit up, arms shoved deep inside her massive hoodie pocket as she walked backwards to face him.</p><p>“Magnitude 5.3? Dude, I remember having to do those stupid bio kits when we got a 6-er.”</p><p>“Right, now we have to wake up even earlier.”</p><p>John rubbed at the raw flesh of his wrist and looked to Lilly beside him, </p><p>“Waking up just to scrape away some skin from my arm, that’s my idea of a good time.”</p><p>The trio walked steadily down a shotty road, asphalt uprooted by the towering trees above them. The early morning sun streamed unsteadily through pine needles, birds chirping quietly amongst the brambles.</p><p>“But they lifted the emergency after just a few hours,” Lilly chimed in, catching up and wrapping her arm around John's. "We were still able to get some sleep in.”</p><p>“Meaning she fell asleep before it was even over,” John rolled his eyes and<br/>
adjusted his backpack. “I had to reset SAMS and update our data myself… not to mention make sure our house wasn’t obliterated.”</p><p>“I saw the vector you posted on Optical.” Sarah laughed as she looked at it again, contacts lightly shimmering as it projected slightly in front of her, inverted from John’s point of view. The grainy screen saw a plume of toxic black smoke rising over a nearly mile wide crater, charred earth painted with search lights from helicopters and SWAT cars.</p><p>“Missed you by less than a few yards, huh?” She continued grinning. “And the fallout? What’s 5.3?... Mimic, right?"</p><p>John shrugged, “Guess that’s why the emergency was lifted so quick.”</p><p>“Fallout was found dead at the scene,” Lilly nodded, breathing harder to see her breath in the mist. “Makes the quarantine seem even sillier. Hopefully they’ll lift it by tomorrow.”</p><p>“I’ve always thought it was overkill,” Sarah nodded in agreement. “Those fallout things never survive more than a few minutes anyway. What have we got here? Three SWAT cars and two helicopters? You can’t get in or out without passing a bio test? All for a super duper dead monster.”</p><p>She pulled up a new tab on her display, forgetting to un-project it.</p><p>"Splice Incident #30487; December 18th, 2034." The screen scrolled softly.<br/>
"Magnitude: 5.3. Location: Jeffco District, Colorado.<br/>
Death toll from Splice Fissure: 3.<br/>
Death toll from Fallout: 0."</p><p>Her eyes flicked down to move the scroll bar.</p><p> </p><p>"Fallout State: Contained," the report continued, grizzly images showing a mangled creature with bulging decayed eyes, clawed hands, and jutting bones.</p><p>"Mimic class - Found dead at scene. Authorities believe deceased subject to be the lone fallout."</p><p>“Yeah, that thing’s not going anywhere.” She laughed, eyes widening as she finally realized she was still projecting her view.</p><p>Her lenses swiveled, display shimmering from existence.<br/>
She pressed her finger to her lip, pondering. Her other hand remained in her hoodie.</p><p>“I suppose it’s just for VERE...” She seemed to affirm to herself, “She survived, what, forty minutes after coming through the splice before suffocating? Er, well… IT, I guess. That’s the longest ever, I think. That was 50 years ago or something crazy though. All I know is that my mom was a kid at the time.”</p><p>“Killed over thirty people in that forty minutes,” John shook his head, glancing in concern to Lilly. “I don’t know. Could have been much worse if the splice occurred in a more populated area. I guess being overly prepared is better than letting something like that happen again… even if nothing has survived since.”</p><p>“I don’t like how they name them,” Lilly just frowned into John’s shoulder, squeezing closer. “I get that it’s just like naming any other natural disaster, like a hurricane or whatever… but it just makes it creepier… at least we understand why hurricanes happen.”</p><p>“Awww, it’s all good,” Sarah smirked, grinning a toothy smile. “Your sister is so cute, John, why doesn’t she walk with us more often?”</p><p>“Her grade cancelled today due to the Splice,” John responded, watching Lilly frown at Sarah’s condescension, “Guess it’s only us seniors that have tests important enough to warrant our potential deaths.”</p><p>“So she’s just tagging along with you for the fun of it?” Sarah’s icy blue eyes just sparkled further, grin widening into a chasm, “You two are so precious I just want to kill myself. You almost make me wish I cared about any of my older brothers.”</p><p>“She’s just going to chill down in the digital Library server room until we get out,” John sighed, “I know I wouldn’t want to be alone at our house right now.”</p><p>Lilly’s grip tightened.</p><p> </p><p>“I have work to do anyway,” She muttered under her breath. “It’s a good place to study.”</p><p>“Sure,” Sarah giggled, finally turning around to walk the correct direction. “I feel ya. Wish we got the day off.” </p><p>***</p><p>The drab interior of the school gleamed with astounding numbness. People busted back and forth, though none of them with particular haste. John leaned against the door to prop it open as Sarah and Lilly streamed through behind. Sarah’s face fell the minute she stepped through the threshold and her UI display prompted her about a test in 10 minutes.</p><p>“Craaaaaaaap,” She frowned, arms folding, “What?! It was just the paper!”</p><p>“As preparation for the test,” John mumbled out as he nodded to Lilly and patted her head. “See you after,”</p><p>Lilly nodded softly, glancing to the elevator down to the<br/>
subbasement level. The words, “Server Room” were poorly scratched in next to the bottom floor. She slowly walked off, dragging her backpack behind her.</p><p>“So the paper isn’t even for credit?!” Sarah paled, nearly denting a crater into the tiles by her feet with frustration. “This class should be happy I even show up!”</p><p>“Did you do the paper?” John cocked an eyebrow, following slightly behind her as heavy footsteps carried her through the school. Several passersby stole glances at her red face and quickly flinched away.</p><p>“That part’s not important,” Her scowl deepened and she threw up her left hand. “Screw the system, John. What does writing a paper teach me<br/>
about Trig?(Trigonometry) I understand the material just fine.”</p><p>“Then you’ll do great on the test,” John suppressed a snicker as he brushed past several people to keep up with Sarah’s storming steps. “Have you ever thought abo-“</p><p>His words stopped cold, irises suddenly glitching with UI static, limbs failing to respond. Both he and Sarah froze up without warning. The crowd around them parted in confusion as they crashed to the ground like plastic toys. Their dull eyes were bleached a colorless grey for less than a second before snapping back to life, UI rebooting. John’s limbs flailed in a delayed response to stop his fall, his eyes wide with confusion. Sarah was much the same, struggling back to her feet with heavy blinks, as if trying to recover the second of lost memory.</p><p>“Did… you just trip me?” She half accused, half genuinely asked, quickly pulling her backpack back up and fixing her ruffled hoodie with one hand.<br/>
John shook his head and the two of them began hesitantly walking again,<br/>
avoiding the stares that slowly dissipated into shrugs and giggles.</p><p>“Wait... I think I lost SAMS,” John spoke uncertainly at first, before his eyes<br/>
began frantically searching his vision. “What the hell?”</p><p>Sarah’s own field of view was equally empty, small circle in the corner of her<br/>
peripheries informing her that her UI was rebooting. No windows came up despite her repeated attempts.</p><p>“Yours too?” She frowned, “Mine’s rebooting…”</p><p>“What the heck just happened?” John repeated, eyes lost without the display as the two of them entered the classroom.</p><p>“YO!” A voice boomed out to intercept John at the door, a hand smashing against his shoulder. “That thing nearly took out your house, dude!”</p><p>John stumbled with the impact, but was held in place by the catcher’s mitt palm gripping him.</p><p>“Gah, Max!” His vision was temporarily blurred, lenses not there to orient him. “Chill, dude!”</p><p> </p><p>“His backyard frickn' is gone!” Sarah was far quicker to adjust, smile exploding into view as Max’s energy hyped her back up. “A few more feet and our little John might have had to relocate!”</p><p>Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she flailed at her pockets.</p><p>“Dangit!” She hissed, darting towards the door. “Tell the teacher to wait if I’m late!” </p><p>“I was actually freaking out for you, dude,” Max finally let go of John with a<br/>
playful shove. “Did you see the location SAMS initially gave for the Splice?<br/>
It was like… your freaking address, bro! Glad it was a bit off with that one!”</p><p>“Me too,” John winced out a smile, rotating his shoulder slowly. “I didn’t know that close.”</p><p>“Hahaha, yeah.” Max just laughed with his trademark open mouthed grin,<br/>
something that would have looked perfectly at home with a backwards baseball cap and tank top.</p><p>“Wait, wait,” John quickly shook his head, turning back to Sarah only to<br/>
remember that she had stepped out. "Crap,” He grumbled, turning back to Max. “Uh, SAMS is down for me… didn’t they say we were going to need a calculator for this test? I should tell Ms. Kanade, right?”</p><p>“Down?” Max questioned, looking closer at John’s eyes. “What do you mean? Like, frozen?”</p><p>John breathed out a large sigh, glancing up to the teacher’s desk at the front of the room. Kids were already clustered around it turning in their papers.</p><p>“No, as in offline,” John shook his head. “I don’t know, this has never happened before. Not even when I updated to 11.03 last year.”</p><p>“Oh... yeah,” Max pulled back, as if not entirely sure if John was joking.<br/>
“Really? You don’t see anything? Did you break a lens?”</p><p>“I don’t know, maybe,” John pursed his lips. “I can tell that it’s trying to reboot. Should I tell her or not?”</p><p>“Yeah, probably,” He nodded, again leaning close to search John’s eyes. “That’s so weird… Don’t get spooked dude, but didn’t this happen to a whole bunch of people before? Like, in Shika?”</p><p> </p><p>“When that Splice that set off the reactor in Japan?” John frowned, “I don’t think that has anything to do with anything. That town lost power for almost a week, and everyone lost SAMS… yours is still working, right?“</p><p>“Oh, Right,” He pondered, putting in all his effort to make it look as though he was thinking, rather than actually doing so. “Maybe you... have you sneezed really hard recently?”</p><p>John sighed.</p><p>“I’m going to tell her.” He spoke, turning and walking steadily to the front.<br/>
As he finally reached her desk through the cluster of people, he heard snickering coming from Max. Sarah had returned, nudging him in the ribs.<br/>
At John’s gaze, she straightened up and gave him a sarcastic thumbs up, much to his confusion.</p><p>He paused, debating for a quick second before immediately returning to them, throwing out his hands.</p><p>“What?” His eyebrows cocked, “What the heck are you doing?”</p><p>“No no no!” Sarah shook her head, laughing. “Wait, John, tell her! I was just<br/>
joking with Max. I’ve actually used this exact excuse before to get out of taking a test.” She paused for a second, before laughing again and continuing. “It didn’t work.”</p><p>John’s frown reached peak capacity. He went to reply before his vision suddenly glitched again, UI spilling into view. Both he and Sarah jolted in surprise, irises frazzling as their limbs again locked up. This time, however, they were both able to steady themselves before they fell, and only Max’s hands splayed out in concern.</p><p>Numbers and diagnostics blotted out John’s gaze, painting his irises death red. Letters and Unicode characters jittered across the lower third of his view, flickering in and out of existence.</p><p>"Splice Anomaly Inbound." It twitched, "Proceed Immediately to Safety."</p><p>This text was immediately replaced with, “High Temperature Warning”, and then simply several jumbled remnants of past webpages, words stitched together in an incoherent mess.</p><p> </p><p>John shook his head, recovering just after Sarah and standing up straight beside her. He figured the Splice warning had merely been a product of the glitching text, but as his UI cut out once again with a harsh frazzle and the text glitched away, he realized how dead silent the room around him was.</p><p>Seemingly now the only one without UI, John stood alone as the class was<br/>
paralyzed in confusion, eyes flashing red with warnings. All at once, their watches blared to life with red numbers. He stood as stunned as the rest of them, glancing to his watch to see the screen dark, nothing out of the ordinary.</p><p>“Can’t be...” John’s words fell out quietly and numbly, “Is this a drill... or...”</p><p>“Another Splice?!” Max cried out, immediately being drowned as wailing sirens shrieked to life.</p><p>“Everyone leave your stuff in the room!” Ms. Kanade tried to yell over the<br/>
electronic screams, the sheer amount of noise seeming to twist the room. </p><p>Color quickly faded to a fetid grey as the world itself became ill. Shadows scurried along the walls as students filed out of the classroom, several stealing quick glances at the charts on the wall to make sure they were going the right way.</p><p>“Quickly!” The teacher again yelled, “Follow the crowd! You know where the<br/>
shelter is, stay out of the doorway!”</p><p>A guttural percussion shook the room, ceiling lights swaying.</p><p>“John!” Sarah commanded, grabbing his wrist with one hand, the other remaining in her pocket. “Let’s get a move on, dude!”</p><p>He snapped into motion and rushed to follow her and Max, clambering figures darting past them in a sea of limbs. Suddenly, however, John’s face broke out in a cold sweat, heart staggering into his throat. His UI was offline... something that had never happened before. Sarah’s had<br/>
seriously malfunctioned as well. Were they somehow connected? If that was the case, and if Lilly was experiencing the same thing... if she didn’t have access to SAMS...</p><p>The hallway pitched with a vicious explosion, bodies being thrown down like<br/>
ragdolls. John, Sarah, and Max all saw the world tumble through their vision as the floor beneath them bowed.</p><p> </p><p>John was the first to get back to his feet, immediately spinning around and<br/>
shouting to Max and Sarah.</p><p>“I’m going after Lilly!”</p><p>“Wait, What?!” Sarah’s voice was drowned out, another blast rupturing through the floorboards. “John, WAIT!”</p><p>“You need SAMS to call the elevator down from inside the server room!” He just cried back, heels digging in further. “If she’s offline like me, that means she’s trapped! Someone will have to take it down! I’ll meet you guys in the splice shelter! Don’t worry!”</p><p>Max and Sarah continued to cry out as he scrambled with unreal speed, darting straight past the safety of the metallic shelter door where teachers frantically waved kids inside. Several panicked voices called out after him as he tore down a now abandoned hallway. The lights above him flickered with the increasingly frequent percussions, sub bass tones building. </p><p>“Immediate action necessary...” SAMS voice split through the loudspeakers.<br/>
“One minute until sealing of Splice shelter. Do not attempt to hold open door.”</p><p>John’s shaking hand slapped against the elevator call button. The light<br/>
immediately dinged. It hadn’t been called down yet. His stomach twisted further.</p><p>The doors slid shut as several terrified faces watched from outside the elevator, shuttering with another vibration. The metal coil above sent shockwaves through the air as the elevator rapidly descended. The rumbles of the impending Splice sounded deafening underground without the steel walls of a shelter.</p><p>John’s teeth clenched. SAMS had yet to reboot in his contacts, the small circle of its loading stalled out into a static frame.</p><p>“Come on, come on, come on.” He muttered with panicked breaths, floor<br/>
numbers dropping until he reached the subbasement. The elevator lurched to a stop as the numbers leveled out, sheering metal far louder than he cared to admit to himself.</p><p>“Server Room” the panel displayed, quickly flickering out as it attempted to map to John’s offline UI. No message appeared prompting him to open the doors. He flailed, searching desperately among the unused and anachronistic manual buttons, finally finding one that appeared as though it might open the metal slabs.</p><p> </p><p>The doors shuttered to give way, creaking open with great effort. The light from the elevator spilled into the room. It was pitch dark inside, the sliver of light slowly dissipating to reveal empty rows upon rows of lightly humming computers. “30 Seconds...” SAMS voice came through a speaker overhead.</p><p>“Lilly?” John cried out in desperation, keeping his foot wedged in the door as he frantically surveyed the room.</p><p>There was no one inside.</p><p>A rolling detonation split through the ceiling, dust raining down only to be kicked back up by the powerful cooling fans. Cracks formed along the walls and the higher shelves sagged dangerously. Above ground, the sky paled to a ghastly white, searing light of the Splice condensing into a pinprick of black.</p><p>John was hysterical, hand smashing against the elevator up button. The elevator doors closed… and then nothing.</p><p>“Splice shelter closing...” SAMS voice was horrifically calm.</p><p>John jabbed the up button again, skin deathly pale.</p><p>“You are experiencing an emergency,” SAMS voice was cold. “Elevator services disabled until emergency is lifted.”</p><p>John’s hand fell to his side, mouth slightly open as the weight of his current<br/>
situation reached forwards to strangle the breath from him. The shaft above shuttered with percussions.</p><p>***</p><p>“Wait! Hold it!” Max’s voice was laced with horror, mechanical whirring<br/>
resounding as the metallic hatch pivoted slowly closed.</p><p>Lilly paled in the crowd, Sarah having to hold her firmly with one hand as she fought hysterically to free herself.</p><p> </p><p>Max’s hands cracked against the metal, machine axis screeching as it struggled to continue closing, still making slow progress.</p><p>“Do not attempt to hold open door,” SAMS voice was beginning to rattle with<br/>
distortions. “You are delaying the safety of this enclosure.”</p><p>“The Splice hasn’t detonated yet you stupid robot!” Max cried, “There’s still<br/>
time!”</p><p>“This is my fault!” Lilly was beside herself. “SARAH! We can’t leave him! Let me go!”</p><p>Sarah’s hands were fixed, cold steely eyes narrowed in resolution despite the conflict swirling beneath.</p><p>Max’s expression contorted into helplessness as he looked behind him at the crowd in the shelter. Everyone was petrified with fear, many clearly seconds from pulling his hands from the door themselves. Slowly, his hands dropped to his sides, palpable guilt spreading through his face in defeat.</p><p>Sarah suddenly winced with pain as Lilly twisted back, jabbing at her stomach with a hard blow. Sarah cried out to stop her as she wrenched herself free. Lilly’s sprint was frantic and failed, tears welling in her eyes as the door pressed closed all the same.</p><p>The locks clicked shut.</p><p>***</p><p>Back underground, the sound of static suddenly screeched out in the darkness. John flinched as his emergency lights came on, spilling red into the elevator. His UI abruptly booted up with a harsh flash, mangled and unrecognizable. There were no clean windows or familiar icon elements, instead raw text data bearing its ugly skinless form. </p><p>“John Matthews, what are you doing?!” Turquoise text spilled across the lower third where the Splice warning should have been. “You will be crushed down here!”</p><p> </p><p>John was stunned, eyes flicking around in mortified confusion.</p><p>“I’ll override SAMS!” The text glitched like an out of focus memory, blurring at random intervals. “Take the elevator back up! Hurry!”</p><p>The text hesitated.</p><p>“Although maybe you should actually stay down here…” It pondered.</p><p>The floor numbers frazzled with a turquoise hue, buttons illuminating.<br/>
John remained motionless, breath caught in his throat.</p><p>“NOW!” The text continued, “I can get the splice door open, but only if you move fast! Or maybe don’t move at all...”</p><p>John shook his head, quickly adjusting his footing and opening a text prompt in his vision, before being immediately cut off.</p><p>“I can hear you through your mic!” The text blurred sporadically as it was typed. “Just talk to me with your voice! If you don’t go fast you’re going to be obliterated! Or you might be obliterated way more if you go up to the surface…”</p><p>“Who are you?” John choked out, refusing to move. “No one can open a Splice door. At this point, I stand the best chance of survival down here...”</p><p>“If by ‘survival,’ you mean death!” The text shattered across his view, font<br/>
increased in size. “Either you believe me or you die! Let’s get a move on!” </p><p>John frantically made up his mind, jabbing at the elevator button… only to have it immediately flash red.</p><p>“Okay, no wait...” The text scrambled, “...You might be right, actually.” </p><p>It glitched into an uncertain Unicode emoji face.</p><p>“Maybe you really should stay down here...” It continued after a long pause,<br/>
being typed far slower. “I, uh… What do you think? Oh gosh... How much time do we have again?”</p><p>“What?!” John cried, red gaze darting around the elevator, jabbing at the button again. “Make up your mind!”</p><p>“You took too long to decide!” The text darted across the screen, a timer<br/>
beginning to rapidly fall in the corner. “Don’t blame me! What’s a girl to do?! Just duck and cover at this point, I guess! You’ve got 2 seconds now, my human friend!”</p><p> </p><p>“WHAT THE HELL?!” John flinched to the ground, barely hitting the cold tiles before a deafening explosion sounded in the near distance.</p><p>The initial pressure wave was the first to arrive just milliseconds later, slating the enclosure against the far wall of the elevator shaft. John rolled like a broken marionette, the secondary wave arriving immediately after, tearing through the ground and vaporizing it to dust. The walls of the elevator buckled, the structure dropping as the steel tether snapped with a horrific sound, sheering against the rock walls like a whip and skewing<br/>
the elevator sideways against its railings. Blood pooled as if suspended in zero gravity as John’s fading mind watched his left hand get pressure cleaved from its socket by jutting metal, remaining attached only by bloodied sinews and skin. </p><p>The ceiling caved, everything going to black.</p><p>***</p><p>Darkness.</p><p>Then soft beeping.</p><p>Skin slowly shifted, splitting open in the darkness to flood it with weak scarlet light. John’s eye was unfocused and dim, iris bleached red from warnings. A heart rate monitor in the bottom left corner was frighteningly low. A warning continuously scrolled through the same protocol, the system attempting to automatically contact 911 but being unable to get through.</p><p>“Exsanguination warning...” the type scrolled again and again. “You are losing blood. Blunt force trauma detected. Attempting to contact emergency services.”</p><p>John shifted agonizingly slowly, lights flickering in the gloom to reveal an entirely closed off maze of twisted metal and rock around him.</p><p>“S-SAMS…” His voice coughed up dust, pale hand a sickly grey as it dangled limply by his side.</p><p>“You have been unconscious for 2 minutes and 17 seconds,” SAMS voice<br/>
prompted. “Brain damage expected. Please follow protocol on screen as emergency services are contacted...”</p><p>John blinked slowly, unable to sit up.</p><p> </p><p>“What is your name?” A message prompt popped up, UI seemingly back to<br/>
normal, no strange turquoise text visible anywhere. “Please speak clearly. If you cannot speak, please select NEXT.”</p><p>“J-John Matthews,” His voice was weak. “SAMS, is the Splice over?”</p><p>“Select the correct date from the list…” The prompts just continued. “If you do not know, please select NEXT.”</p><p>“SAMS, exit automatic EMT protocol,” John grunted, sitting up with great effort. “Diagnostic report on recent Splice.”</p><p>“7:14am, December 19th, 2034,” The menu finally changed. “A 6.1 Magnitude Splice Anomaly has Occurred in the Evergreen District. You have yet to confirm your safety. Do so now?”</p><p>John glanced to the time at the top right.</p><p>7:16am.</p><p>The menu glitched away, emergency medical services being activated again with a warning message.</p><p>“Exsanguination imminent...” The type scrolled. “You are losing blood. Blunt force trauma detected. Attempting to contact emergency services.”</p><p>As John went to close it, the box was suddenly torn off to the side. Text<br/>
scrambled as everything again flooded with electric turquoise. A surprised Unicode emoji face flashed into view.</p><p>“Holy mother of myself!” A string of text splayed across the screen under the face. “You’re a tough one!”</p><p>“You again...” John winced, putting weight on his partially severed limb only to immediately roll to the ground as the air was leached from him.</p><p>“You’ll never guess how happy I am to see you alive!” The text sprinted across before pausing for several seconds. “...I guess kinda happy...” It concluded. “Or, wait...maybe very happy...”</p><p>“How the hell are you doing this?” John wheezed, using his other hand to shove himself back to his knees. “Who are you?!”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m your friend,” The text typed, the surprised emoji disappearing. “You’ll make it out of this alive if you follow my instructions! ...or, wait... you might die regardless.”</p><p>“Get out of my system!” John hissed, getting to his feet unsteadily, breathing<br/>
heavy. “I need SAMS.”</p><p>“I can be your SAMS,” The text typed, a winky face emoji following. “I can do whatever you need.” The text quickly backspaced, a horrified emoji replacing what it once said. “That sounded weird.” The text followed up.</p><p>“Where the hell am I, and how can I get out!?” John hissed, “Is this a game to you?! Get out of my system! I’m seriously injured!”</p><p>“I can see that,” The text scrolled up to a new row. “I’ve got your gaze camera after all. You’re a few floors down, approximately 10 feet below the server room in front of you, which is decimated, by the way. The elevator doors appear to be welded shut. The best route out of here is up.”</p><p>John’s eyes flashed upwards grudgingly. The ceiling was caved down several feet, but there was indeed a small crawlspace twisting straight up through the jutting metal. At the other end, yawning blackness extended out until his faint light was consumed by it. Rotting wind howled in the empty expanse.</p><p>“I don’t think I can climb...” John glanced down nervously to his hand. The<br/>
bruising was spreading up his arm like a disease, likely internal bleeding.</p><p>“I would try if I were you,” The text responded, "...or maybe not. I think it’s up to you. You definitely need to get to the surface though.”</p><p>It paused again for quite some time.</p><p>“Or maybe not.” It typed slowly.</p><p>“Stop talking for a second.” John frowned, taking several more seconds to glance up at the hole, before suddenly leaping up for it. Metal rattled and displaced, the entire elevator groaning as it shifted slightly. His teeth gritted as he used his good hand and his other elbow to hoist himself up with surprising aptitude. The wind of the decimated elevator shaft whipped at his hair as he rolled to the surface and pulled his legs out from the tunnel.</p><p> </p><p>“Whoa,” The text scrolled, “Keep this up and you might actually survive this.<br/>
Or... I mean, maybe-”</p><p>“Maybe not,” John sighed, “I get it. Stop talking.”</p><p>“You got it...” The text deleted itself, “You’re passing the server room now. Keep<br/>
climbing straight up. No reason to go in there.”</p><p>A gaping hole in front of John lead to where the server room once was, now<br/>
simply a pile of rubble and steel. John slowly climbed past it.</p><p>“...Unless maybe you want to.” The text scrolled, another surprised emoji<br/>
following suit. </p><p>“Shut up!” John grunted, feet shakily stepping on loose rock and rust as he<br/>
continued ascending.</p><p>“You’re right,” The text typed slowly, “Best to keep going...”</p><p>Down below in the sever room, the darkness was all consuming, rubble quietly sprinkling down. One small sliver of metal drifted from the twisted rafters, spinning several times like a razor blade snowflake before slowly settling… on a pale hand.</p><p>Black blood leaked steady out from a pile of twisted rubble. The surprised emoji on John’s screen updated to a smiling one.</p><p>***</p><p>Sarah paced around the room, hands in her hoodie, face contorted in forced<br/>
stoicism.</p><p>“All a Splice shelter is, is a stupid hole in the ground anyway!” Max spoke, aiming the words in Sarah’s direction, yet clearly meaning them more for himself. “John’s underground too! It’s the same thing! He... he’s got this!”</p><p>Sarah didn’t respond, eyes angrily flashing back to the Splice door. Lilly had been sick several times into a trashcan, now lying in a grey ball in the corner of the room as several classmates carefully comforted her.</p><p> </p><p>Nervous whispers and chatter filled the small space, packed full with more bodies than it was meant to hold. Sarah’s UI suddenly flashed with a blinding spark of blue, her legs splaying out to catch herself. Everyone was too preoccupied with their own thoughts to notice her stumble, but as she shook her head, everything had cut out. Only a single line of turquoise text remained.</p><p>“John is alive.”</p><p>Her eyes widened in disbelief, before narrowing immediately. Her gaze flashed around the room nervously before she opened a text prompt of her own. She typed deliberately, running her left hand through her black hair slowly. </p><p>“How injured is he?” Her words were cold and unyielding, “Will he bleed out if we’re lucky?”</p><p>“Plan B already in effect.” The text scrolled.</p><p>“No!” Sarah typed angrily, teeth clenching. “The other team will be here any<br/>
minute! We don’t have time for that! Keep him down there, break his spirit and let him bleed out!”</p><p>Her icy eyes flicked to the door one more time, fist clenching.</p><p>***</p><p>“Heyyyyy... John, can I talk to you?” Turquoise text typed slowly across blank space, John’s eyes flicking to it as he hoisted himself upwards onto a precarious ledge.</p><p>“What do you want?” He breathed heavily, vision swimming with after images. “Once I get to the surface, you’re really going to need to go so I can check SAMS.”</p><p>“...for what?” The text was slower than usual.</p><p>“To... check on someone,” He grunted as he swung himself to the nearest bar of jutting metal. “It doesn’t matter. I still don’t understand why you’re doing this, but do I have your word you’ll stop hacking me once I get to safety?”</p><p> </p><p>The text was silent for a while.</p><p>“...sure.” It finally spoke.</p><p>Several more seconds passed before it typed again.</p><p>“Is it... to check on your sister?”</p><p>John’s hand hesitated as he reached for the next ledge. He retracted it slowly, eyes narrowing.</p><p>“Who are you?” He hissed, “I’m tired of this game. You clearly know me. Be<br/>
honest, or I’m going to rip these lenses out. How did you know the exact time the splice was going to hit? Why did you call me your human friend?”</p><p>The screen was empty for a long time.</p><p> </p><p>“...My name is Malie.” The turquoise text slowly clacked across the space, typed one letter at a time. “And I'm about to dump a lot of information on you. We don't have time for anything less.”</p><p>A picture glitched into view.</p><p>An awkwardly smiling girl of Pacific Islander descent was framed slightly out of focus, blushing away from the camera. Thick rimmed glasses extenuated her shy demeanor, hands clasped uncomfortably by her grass skirt. It appeared to be some kind of year book photo, and it was quite old, made up of digital pixels rather than vectors. The girl in the photo was around 15 or 16 years old at the time of it being taken.</p><p>“This is me...” The type continued, overlaying the picture and hesitating for a bit before continuing. “Two weeks before I died.”</p><p>John read the text carefully.</p><p>"...My name is Malie. I am now what you call ‘Fallout.’” The text continued.<br/>
“I arrived here at 2:32am, on December 18th through what you refer to as a Splice anomaly.”</p><p>John hesitated, eyes scanning the darkness above him.</p><p>“Splice anomalies occur when beings cross between dimensions,” Malie continued. “You and your planet think you know this, think you’re prepared for it...”</p><p>Rubble cascaded down from high above, John parrying to the side to watch it tumble past, disappearing into the depths below.</p><p> </p><p>“You don’t know the half of it.” The text warned. “You just receive trash, beings killed or exiled by the game masters. You have no idea what’s coming for you.”</p><p>“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” John shook his head, breathing out<br/>
before reaching for the ledge above him again. “But to be honest, right now I have other things to worry about.”</p><p>“No you don’t!” The harsh text suddenly jittered to block his view, and<br/>
ear-piercing shriek ringing out.</p><p>John flinched back, nearly slipping off the edge. He flailed out to grab the jagged side of a rock wall, gaze distorting slightly as his lenses warped.</p><p>“I’m sorry...” The text downsized again, being typed slower. “I’m really sorry. It’s just... you might want to be on stable ground for this, John. I don’t mean to frighten you…"</p><p>John breathed out, hoisting himself back onto balance. His eyes scanned the text before a small black rectangle slowly faded into the center of his screen.</p><p>“Virtual Camera 01” A caption below it said.</p><p>With great caution, a figure within the frame slowly and carefully lowered their hand from their face. The screen flickered in the dim light. The ghastly form had been hollowed out into a decrepit husk of grey flesh, eyes starched open to unending black voids, ringed with darkness and caked on blood as if carved out by knives. Its hair was tinted an unnatural turquoise in the faint light, floating as if suspended in water. Its head was tilted away in embarrassment, rotten blood pooled like mascara. Small electric diodes of blue light within her sockets seemed to be how she looked around. Rows upon rows of computer code were her only companions in the black void, the text giving off a deathly glow that was lost to the empty oblivion.</p><p>John’s heart struggled over its next few beats, eyes widening as the girl’s pinprick cobalt beams flicked nervously to stare into the camera.</p><p>It was the same girl from the photo.</p><p>“Sorry...” The creature’s voice was shaky and nervous, crawling from her lips like spiders as text below the frame mirrored it. “But I cannot allow you to crawl to your death.”</p><p> </p><p>John was at a loss.</p><p>“Even in my own dimension I was a monster,” The girl continued. “I was once human like you, but I can hardly remember that time anymore. After my death, my conscience did not fade and I found solace in manipulating a new kind of reality I could still control. In my timeline, we called my type of entity a poltergeist, John. I might assume we share that word.”</p><p>Only the girl’s blue dots were visible, nervously flicking away from the camera.</p><p>“Do poltergeists exist in your world, John?” She continued, “I always thought of believing in ghosts as silly.”</p><p>John was silent.</p><p>“The point of this,” The girl shrunk back further. “Is that while I may be disturbing to you… there are creatures far fouler than me. There are things you can’t begin to fathom, creatures that prey on me, and others like me… creatures that experience none of the humanity you and I share. All crawling out of here will allow you to do is witness the end of your world. Or... I mean, I guess that plus a few other things maybe.”</p><p>Malie’s eyes sparked with dread, diodes flickering.</p><p>“The Splices are our doing,” She nodded, hair drifting slowly behind. “But they are not our choice. I don’t pretend to understand any more than any other contestant, John… but there is a race of creature puppeting a survival game on a scale none of us can comprehend. The other contestants have arrived sooner than I thought. I can’t let you leave the safety of these ruins.”</p><p>“Safety?” John laughed, shaking his head in an attempt to either comprehend this information, or disregard it completely. “I’m sorry Malie, but I’m having a bit of trouble believing you right now... both about this world ending scheme of yours, and the fact that you’re supposedly helping me. What I know is that I’m going to die if I don’t get medical help soon, and my sister is either inside a shelter right now, or she needs more help than me.”</p><p>He reached back up, beginning to climb.</p><p>“You can’t stop me,” He continued coldly. “No matter what, I’m not just going to sit down here and-”</p><p>Malie hesitantly moved forwards again, shielding her face with her left hand, and slowly bringing up her right.</p><p> </p><p>Rather than her other hand, a large puppet gradually rose into frame.<br/>
John’s grip slipped, heart freezing up as he glanced to the fraying image.</p><p>A white eyeless rabbit character lay slumped over, perched on her hand as if about to put on a show. From its fuzzy cookie monster style mouth, massive orca-like teeth spilled forth, prevented it from closing all the way.<br/>
A small TV symbol was etched into its soft felt body.</p><p>“This...” The girl flinched, realizing there was a lot of light on her and sinking<br/>
back. “This is my leash.”</p><p>John’s skin paled further, the exit above him darkening into his peripheries. At the base of the puppet, rather than simply an opening for a hand to use it, metallic pincers and spring traps had dug into the girl’s flesh, locking it in place. Countless small rotating needles endlessly churned beneath the mesh of the puppet, working delicately around like millipede legs.</p><p>At being shoved in front of the camera, John watched in horror as the puppet purred to life, a large pair of metal incisors unfurling from the base and scraping tenderly back up along the length of the girl’s arm. Its head tilted upwards with gentle and precise mechanical whirling, mouth widening into a massive grin. It looked directly into the lens with its blind face.</p><p>One of its two tiny paws waved cutely, head cocking to the side.</p><p>“O-only contestants can hear their own leash,” Malie tried to keep her<br/>
breathing calm as the cold metal playfully retracted. “But it’s saying hello. You asked me before if I thought this was a game, John...” She put down her hand carefully, eyes flashing back to the camera. “To them, it is.” She continued. “I need you to listen to me, or you will certainly die… Or, I mean, probably certainly.”</p><p>“You’re a... contestant, then?” John spoke. “What does that mean? They tell you what to do? That tiny puppet?”</p><p>“You don’t… you couldn’t understand,” The girl nervously retorted, the screen flickering to nothing as her words died, only the text remaining to pick up her sentence.</p><p> </p><p>“But you can understand this… I’m sorry. Your friends are about to get slaughtered on the surface, and you will be too if you continue. This is for your own good, John Matthews.” </p><p>John's gaze flashed to the corner of his screen, eyes narrowing.</p><p>***</p><p>“How are you so calm?” Max cried, watching Sarah frown at the floor as she<br/>
continued to pace. “What if John is alive, but no one can get to him in time?! Why are the first responders taking so long?!”</p><p>The crowd had only gotten louder inside the room, the warning lights of the door still softly fading in and out. Lilly now stood by the door rigidly, hands clutched at themselves. Her eyes were dull and lifeless.</p><p>“6.1 Emergency in Effect,” The glowing text red. “Manual Latch Disabled. Do Not Attempt to Open Door.”</p><p>Sarah ignored Max, biting at the nails of her left hand feverishly. Suddenly, more turquoise text crawled in her UI, her eyes hastily flashing to it.</p><p>“Unexpected results,” Malie was frantic. “John’s headed to the surface faster now! If he reaches the top, he’ll be like a sitting duck for the other team!”</p><p>Sarah cursed out loud, causing Max to stop mid-sentence.</p><p>“What?!” He spun. “What’s wrong?! Were you able to connect to his vitals?! Is he okay?!”</p><p>Sarah’s eyes just sizzled with heat, her fist clenching.</p><p>“Sarah?!” Max stood up, running and putting his hands on her shoulders.<br/>
“What the hell is wrong?! What just happened?! I can handle it, I just want to know!”</p><p>“...Now a lot more people are going to die.” Her words crawled out like sticky poison, not an ounce of remorse in her voice.</p><p>Max was stunned into silence.</p><p> </p><p>“Wh-...” He stammered, several other people turning their direction as well.<br/>
“What?”</p><p>“Good riddance.” Sarah spoke equally numbly.</p><p>Her feet pivoted so hard the floor tiles cracked, her right hand finally tearing out from her hoodie. The rabbit puppet cackled with glee as it came into view, metallic spines flaying outwards in a flurry of blurring silver as Sarah hacked it against Max’s neck. The crack of his spinal cord resounded through the small room, blood painting the walls and floor as Sarah’s puppet bit through his soft flesh like putty. She thrashed sideways with unnatural force, Max’s limp body being torn like a ragdoll before the puppet let go and he slammed against the far wall with a deafening crack. His head rolled from his mangled body, Sarah’s dark hair falling to covering her eyes as she breathed heavy, face bowed in shadow.</p><p>The puppet applauded with enamored glee, toothy grin plastered with blood and sinews as Sarah dropped it to her side.</p><p>The room was filled with deafening silence, the clacking of Sarah’s feet toward the door the only sound before the image settled in and hysterical shrieks erupted outwards. People scrambled to the sides of the room and dropped to the floor like dying flies.</p><p>Sarah ignored them all as she walked headlong. People flailed out of the way as she approached the door and her hand slowly raised again. Lilly’s dull eyes sparked with new terror as she staggered to the side. The puppet’s teeth slammed against the metal as gleaming pincers inverted out from under its soft body to rupture through the other side of the steel.</p><p>Metal blurred with a sickening grinding noise, the door buckling as Sarah<br/>
wrenched backwards, throwing the massive chunk of metal behind her like a Frisbee. The 200 pound disk blurred with speed, the people cowered against the front wall unable to even blink before their torsos were shattered with a deafening clatter. Flesh and bones sheered into view as they fell to pieces. </p><p>“Malie,” The creature commanded, skin flaking away as its spine contorted.<br/>
“Keep John away from the other team, no one is killing him but us, you got it? Plan B better go fast.”</p><p>Lilly was helpless as Sarah’s knobby hand stabbed against her neck, bony fingers latching around hard enough to choke her breath away.</p><p>“...Yes AVA.” Turquoise text hesitantly typed. In the darkness, Malie’s empty sockets sunk in remorse.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The charred sky sagged with toxic sludge above the crater caused by the Splice. In the center, a pale figure steadily came into view.</p><p>"Welcome to 5C Earth!" A puppet shouted out excitedly. "Looks like your bet to Splice in so close was worth the risk Kali. The target John is still alive but everything is in chaos, this could be our chance!"</p><p>Ash and fire spun in a haunting column above the girl holding the puppet, four metallic chains draping from her back like intestines, tipped with barbed spears.</p><p>"We know AVA and Malie are already here," The puppet continued, "He must be insanely inept to not have completed the task already, am I right?"</p><p>"Inept... yes." The girl spoke with a dead dry voice, distortion softly wavering around her like heat waves. "This challenge will be simple, I would appreciate it if you were to not speak unless you have useful information."</p><p>The puppet froze in shock, before waving its tiny arms angrily. From behind Kali, a dark figure stepped forwards, white bulging sphere eyes scanning the horizon. It casually shoved it's puppeted hand into its pocket, entire body appearing practically two dimensional, a single shade of pure black. Its other hand held a wooden baseball bat, wide grin lighting up its face like a draw on image.</p><p>It cackled, stooping down to pick up some dirt, and throwing it into the air with a poorly imitated explosion sound. It kicked its heels and casually slid next to Kali, giving her a nudge and winking. She stared back at him with emotionless eyes.</p><p>"Sad…" Kali spoke under her breath, beginning to walk towards the decimated school at the end of the crater.</p><p>"Ok fine, enough of that. I just want to bash the dudes head in though, you feel me?" The silhouette recovered, continuing to laugh as it ran to catch up with her. "Like, why all the stupid rules? Killing him without touching or throwing anything at him? Who writes this crap, am I right? He's already got 'Main Character' syndrome on his side."</p><p>"Makes it require more skill." Kali spoke coldly.</p><p>"Riiiiiiight, but technically you have telekinesis, right?" The black form nodded eagerly. "I mean, would that count as touching? What if you just, like, pushed a big rock on his head."</p><p>"No influencing any object or series of objects directly to kill him." His puppet waved its hands from inside his pocket, voice muffled. "Use your head Door Guy, if you feel like it might be against the rules, then it probably is. Would hate to disqualify you so early in the game."</p><p>"Maybe, if I could just tell him a bad enough joke," The figure pondered, shrugging with a wide grin. "...Or mabye I'll just let you take this one Kali."</p><p>"Second option preferred." The girl muttered.</p><p>***</p><p>"John…" Turquoise text flashed repeatedly across his screen. "W-Where are you going? Don't do anything drastic, especially not in your condition."</p><p>John was beginning to see light above him, heavy breaths full of sticky blood. He finally found a doorway intact enough to enter, the stairs inside were still undamaged enough to allow him to begin ascending.</p><p>In the darkness, Malie’s hands rose to her face in panic, eyes darting to her other side to follow AVA's movements on a different screen. The creature stood in front of a mortified crowd to block the doorway, sickle-like fingers still grasped around Lilly's frail neck.</p><p>"Start the video," The doppelganger hissed, still wearing Sarah's skin though parts of it had begun to flake away. "Pick any one of the crowd members and stream their view."</p><p>"R...Right," Malie panicked, code scrolling past her vacant eyes. "Give me a second..."</p><p>"Tell me Malie," John slowly spoke on the other screen, eyes flashing up to a large obstruction in his way. "Is the real Sarah still alive?"</p><p>Malie froze, scrolling lines of code stopped dead. "I-I'm not sure what you mean…" She typed hesitantly, sweating bullets. "The real Sarah?"</p><p>John's teeth clenched as he judged his next leap carefully, legs swinging below him as he gripped the exposed rebar and hoisted himself up.</p><p>"What is he doing!" AVA's voice hissed out to Malie's left. "Have you started?"</p><p>"You're not fooling anyone," John spoke coldly, "I know you're not actually trying to help me, Malie."</p><p>Malie's face fell, cold hands dropped limply to her side. "For him to figure it out so fast…"</p><p>"Malie!" AVA hissed, wrenching Lilly against the wall in impatience. "What is he thinking!"</p><p>"I...uh… h-he knows…" Malie sweated, looking positively sick. "I mean… I think he knows."</p><p>"What?" AVA hissed, stopping cold. "How the- What did you tell him! It doesn't matter, just start the stream."</p><p>"No one else is getting hurt." John continued, finally dropped over the side of the obstruction, wrenching the exposed rebar with him. "Figures you wouldn't care to encrypt your message server if you were the one hacking me. Those messages from Sarah, that’s not her, she wouldn't say those things."</p><p>"I…" Malie typed, eyes scuttling in horror to AVA's vision window, watching the creature’s POV as it grew more and more impatience. "You...You hacked into my… how long have you?"</p><p>"What does it want?" John continued, the rusted metal of the rebar glinting in the dim flickering lights. "For now I'm going to believe you about the whole survival game thing. What is the game's end goal? How can I stop it from killing anyone else?"</p><p>Malie was stunned into silence, eyes wide with shock.</p><p>"Malie!" John cried, "You said your puppets tell you what to do. If I could somehow sever its puppeted hand, would that do anything?"</p><p>"Y-You…" Malie began to shake, eyes darting rapidly between AVA and him. "You want to… help."</p><p>"How do I stop the game!?" John yelled, nearly at the top level, "What is the puppet telling it to do? Will it kill anyone else if it doesn't have to?"</p><p>Malie's hair fluttered in the numb computer generated wind, hands frozen in place. The countdown on the stream reached zero.</p><p>"Video Feed Starting Up…"</p><p>In the crowd, one of the students watching in horror nearly fell to their knees as their vision suddenly flashed a blinding, turquoise hue.</p><p>AVA's face glistened with joy, her gnarled hand rapidly scraping Lilly back in front of her. Her other puppeted hand dangled by her wrist, its long ears softly swinging back and forth.</p><p>"Oh good~" The creature swooned, loosing its form intermittently, limbs occasionally warping and twisting as if in a blender. Its eyes flickered between steel blue and its true, vile grey. </p><p>"Welcome to the show." It continued, looking into the student's turquoise lenses. "John Matthews, can you hear me?"</p><p>Finally stumbling onto the top level, John screeched to a halt as his UI flashed with the student's video feed. His eyes widening, limbs splaying out in horror.</p><p>"Stop right there." The creature hissed. "You're about to have a real bad day, let's work together to not make it any worse."</p><p>John's eyes darted in panic as another student shakily stood at the other end of the hallway. It was Penny, a classmate of his, her blonde hair in a tattered and worn ponytail, rouge hair spilling around her freckled face.</p><p>Her turquoise tinted eyes were fixed on him, lenses wiring softly to feed the video into the creature’s UI. Her hands were balled in front of her, shaking softly with terror.</p><p>"Ok, wait." John put out his hands and took a step forwards, irises fixed on Lily’s gasping form, struggling for breath.</p><p>"Please just wait, what do you wa-"</p><p>The creature cackled, the screen shimmering with distortions as it slashed its hand forwards. Lily's cry was strangled to silence immediately, mouth hanging in twisted shock as the creature’s gangly hand pressed fingers through her left eye socket. Boiling blood spilled forth, screams erupting from the crowd as her eye slapped across the floor with a soundless squelch, optic nerve tangled with bits of flesh.</p><p>John's blood chilled to solid ice, limbs locking up. The creature grinned widely, bones horrifically brittle as it seemed to tower over Lily’s muted form, limbs creaking and popping.</p><p>"Was the connection bad?"</p><p>It's ghastly mouth split open into a casim sized grin.</p><p>"I'm pretty sure I said stop right there, not do whatever you feel like." The creature sighed. "We'll get right to the point then John, right, would you like that? Preferably before your sister looses few more body parts."</p><p>John's fist clenching, rebar in his hand shuttering. Penny's eyes twisted with horror, her pale skin flushing with sickly green, yet her eyes remained firmly locked on him.</p><p>"Bad day to be a main character, right?"</p><p>The creature cocked its head, irises shimmering with black.</p><p>"Ever wonder why everything seems to revolve around you?"</p><p>John stalled, words dead in his throat.</p><p>"Well regardless, it ends here." The creature smiled, stringy black hair molting like dead skin from its scalp. " Malie tells me you've been listening in, so that saves me from some exposition."</p><p>John's gaze suddenly flickered violently, red slashing into his lower third.</p><p>"Splice Anomaly Inbound" It read, "Proceed immediately to safety"</p><p>Sirens blared to life again, overhead lights being to flicker.</p><p>"And not a moment to soon~" The creature's teeth sharpened. "Looks like more team members are arriving John, my demand is simple. You see, it appears our challenge this round is to kill the main character of this dimension without physically harming them directly."</p><p>The school shook with a distant precaution hallway warping off kilter.</p><p>"I don't understand."</p><p>John shook his head, regaining his balance.</p><p>"Tell me what you want and I'll do it, no one here deserves to die!"</p><p>"Super duper correct!"</p><p>The creature lips parted in a historical chuckle.</p><p>"And, as a matter of fact, you can be the one to ensure that! If we can't harm you directly you'll just have to take the higher road here. Allow my team to win the game by doing use all a favor."</p><p>The creature's hand slowly pressed to its neck, raking across its flesh.</p><p>"Take that rebar of yours and go ahead and hole punch your own throat."</p><p>It continued, taking a second to let this information sink it.</p><p>"Come on, your life for all these people? What a laughable trade, right? Only a fool wouldn't take that."</p><p>John's heart stopped, eye's flashing down to the rebar in his hand. The sky outside blackened with dust and silt, sporadic light flickering in the approaching splice.</p><p>"That would mean now." The creature hastily prompted. "What's there to think about? It's what you main protagonists are best at, noble sacrifice the best way to kill a main character."</p><p>John's voice struggled to make any coherent words.</p><p>"I can't hear you."</p><p>The creature's neck split sideways, hands stabbing into Lily's other socket with a sickening snap. John flinched backwards, sweat beating his forehead as he hastily brought up the rebar.</p><p>"Okay okay, wait!"</p><p>"No waiting!"</p><p>The eye slapped against the ground, Lily's anguish figure losing any strength and crumpling, now held up only the creature’s hand against her neck.</p><p>"Stop it!"</p><p>John was hysterical, teeth nashing.</p><p>"I'll do it, but what happens when the splice comes? There's no shelter door, everyone will still die!"</p><p>"They'll stand a better chance though, no?"</p><p>The creature played with Lily’s eyeless corpse like a doll.</p><p>"You don’t hold any cards, John. Sad to say, this isn't a bargain. I'm offering you a sweet deal. There is one way to stop the splice, but you can stop your sister's pain in her last moments of life."</p><p>John swallowed hard, heart shuttering as it fought to break free.</p><p>"N-Not true."</p><p>The turquoise text flickered across John's screen, the world devolving in slow motion.</p><p>"T-That's not true. The leashes are immune to distortion based teleportation, AVA could seal the door with her puppet if she wanted to."</p><p>John's face twitched to hide his surprise from Penny's turquoise stare, hand hesitating at his throat. The light outside began condensing, rumbles dropped below hearing.</p><p>"Running out of time!"</p><p>The creature snapped, slamming Lily's skull against the wall with an audible crack, her muted shriek enough to cause John's fist to ball again.</p><p>"Let’s get a move on!"</p><p>"Y-You can't sever her wrist. The leashes are wired into the hosts nervous system, the distortion based barrier prevents hosts from cutting themselves free to escape the game."</p><p>John hesitated, pushing the rebar slowly closer to his flesh, time running down faster than it would take him to process what she was saying.</p><p>"B-But if you kill AVA, the leash will detach automatically!"</p><p>The text flashed hastily, sensing John's impending suicide.</p><p>"Listen, you can say everyone if you take her place!"</p><p>John's hand was delayed again, mind racing with blurred words. Was this another trick?</p><p>"If I electronically interrupt to feed, AVA will know and kill your sister!"</p><p>The text glittered violently.</p><p>"Or she will die anyway if you don’t act! Find a way to get out of any student's view long enough to reach her!"</p><p>John flinched. Why was she suddenly helping? His gaze flashed back to Penny, her terrified eyes wincing as he brought the rebar closer and closer. His eyes narrowed.</p><p>"Too bad."</p><p>The creature nashed, hands squeezing so tight around Lily’s neck bones began to shift out of alignment.</p><p>"And here I thought you cared about your sister. Guess not enough to protect her neck from snapping like a tw-"</p><p>John's throat gushed hot blood with a brutal slash of his wrist. Penny's eyes flashed away with sickness as she let out a gag and vomited. Bile spilled onto the ground in her POV, the creature stopping dead in shock. His grip lessened, eyes hesitantly searching the destructed screen in confusion.</p><p>"Holy crap." It hissed. "Guess the kid actually had it in hi-"</p><p>Rebar stabbed into her view, blurred in her vision as it jutted out beneath her chin. Her cursings steadily filled with sticky, tar-like blood, eyes starched into wide saucers that slowly twitched down to the metal spear impaling her neck. Her breaths were in vain, air whistling through the open gash and bubbling out warm fluids. Her clawed hands fought to retain their strength dropping painfully limp as she staggered forwards until she rolled to the floor in a sprawled crunch.</p><p>Behind her, John's eyes were wide with panic, shaking hands stained with blood that was the creature’s and his own. He was dripping with a red substance, large cut across the side of his neck. Not deep, nor direct enough to be life threatening. Lily however lay gasping on the floor, frozen in a paralytic state as blood drained from her like water.</p><p>The onlooking crowd was mortified and dumbfounded, hollow stares filled with red warnings. The creature on the ground slowly stirred groaning in agony before its spindley hand clacked against the tiles with exposed needle-like fingernails. One of its hands slowly worked around the back of its neck, sliding out the rebar with agonizing slowness whilst it's other puppeted hand pressed to the floor.</p><p>"You..." AVA coughed up tar, Sarah's features ebbing away completely as it's skin shed away entirely to reveal sickly green skin. "My fucking throat."</p><p>It's body was stitched together like a half-hazard collection of parts, limbs horrifically long and thin for its slender torso, looking more like a spider than a bipedal creature. It's eyes were bulging spears that were mostly consumed by irises, which possessed no pupil. Her needle-like teeth nashed together in rage.</p><p>"Y-You can't kill a mimic like that!" Malie's words splayed across John's screen. "What are you doing? Your main character status will only get you so far!"</p><p>"Big mistake." AVA spat, spine twisting backwards as she tried to work her way back to her feet. "I'm going to rip your pathetic arms off! How dare you fu-"</p><p>AVA words were halted as John slammed his heel down on her head, driving it's skull into the floor with a resounding crack. Panic flared in his eyes as he stomped again, the creature's limbs splaying out like a dying insect. It screamed profanities through broken teeth.</p><p>"Malie, help for God's sake! Fry his vision!"</p><p>Nothing.</p><p>"You fucking traitor!" AVA screeched, hands slamming back to the ground to hoist her up. "I should have known you were-"</p><p>Her jaw dislocated as John swung again, show splattering with dark tar. The creature violently rolled across the floor, puppet slapping against the reflective tiles as it fought to steady itself. The rebar clattered from its hand, John hastily rolling to grab it.</p><p>"T-The head must be completely severed!" Malie panicked. "Otherwise it will just shed any damaged flesh!"</p><p>"That's enough!"</p><p>The creature spat out needles and pieces of bone, eyesight foggy and warped as it stumbed to its feet. John pinwheeled backwards as AVA lifted her puppet in his face, countless knife tipped armatures rupturing forth. The blades spun like a lawn mower, painting his face with reflective silver. He flailed in panic until he stood crouched a safe distance away, breathing heavy with the rebar firmly grasped in his right hand. His left hand was still numb, resting unlessly atop it.</p><p>"What are you gonna do now kid?" AVA's grin widened as the room began shaking with the approaching splice. "Now the splice is gonna eradicate you all! I win!" AVA's face suddenly brightened. "Y-You'll die here either way in this standoff, I won't even have to touch you! I win!"</p><p>Her hissing laughter split through the room before John's heel suddenly dug into the floor. The rebar clattered across the floor behind him as he darted forwards. His eyes narrowed, hand rushing forwards into the blades.</p><p>"What are you-" AVA cried hysterically, at the last second registering his movement and yanking the puppet upwards in panicked fear to avoid touching him. John's hand however continued forwards snapping against her forearm with a hard crack. AVA's eyes widened in raw fear as she realized his play, limbs unable to respond before John pivoted, yanking her own hand against her skull.</p><p>The blades sprayed gore like a wood chipper, AVA's mangled scream being drowned out by the noise before her cranium split like an egg. John Jersey back as the creature fell sideways, puppet screeching to a stop as it gittered across the ground, scaring gashes in the steel flooring. The creature's limbs twitched slightly blood pooling in frightening amounts before it lay still, foul air escaping its dead lips.</p><p>The puppet hissed with a massive pressure release, scalding steam shooting out in tiny jets as it dislodged from AVA's hand, leaving behind a mangled mess of scarred flesh and bone.</p><p>"Eric, get Penny from outside!" John commanded to a kid looking on in horror. "Bring her back in here!"</p><p>No one moved.</p><p>"Now!" John cried, the kid finally scrambling into action before John hesitantly knelt down next to the puppet and looked at his own hand worryingly.</p><p>"T-Think about this." The turquoise text rapidly typed. "I'm not sure if I mentioned this or if it was implied, but doing this will enter you into the game. Y-You'll be able to save your friends, but you won't be around to see them."</p><p>"I don't know what you mean by "main character"," John spoke softly, already damaged hand trembling as he pushed it forwards. "But I guess we are going the noble sacrifice route anyway, huh?"</p><p>"I guess so." The text typed slowly, Malie's eyes falling into worry as the puppet struggled to life, mechanical gears shifting at John's approach.</p><p>He didn't have to do much. The minute his hand entered within range of the puppet, the device distorted into action, needle flesh opening like a gaping makes it scurried forwards with spider legs of metal. John flinched back, gasping in shocked pain as metallic pincers snapped into place hard enough to shatter his radius, skin feeling as if lava was being poured inside of it. His vision blurred, breaths faint and panicked as he staggered to his feet and fought the urge to rip the puppet off with all his strength.</p><p>Eric finally reappeared, frantically dragging the still queasy Penny into the room. The first pressure wave of the approaching splice followed them by milliseconds, the entire room upheaving as the doorway buckled and people were thrown from their feet, screams mixing with breaking bones and sheering walls. John however barely felt the deafening impact as if behind an indestructible plexiglass door, the wave distorting around him like water.</p><p>His feet clacked against the floor as he threw himself forwards, hand raising into the doorway and flinching away. The light was eerily silent in its second wave, spreading outwards from the epicenter in a hideous sphere of influence, the already decimated structure of the school shattering to rubble in its wake.</p><p>John's eyes squeezed closed, Malie's diodes constricting in further panic. Her hand clenched, mouth partially open before John's dark POV cut out completely, a soft shutter in her computer world leaving the screens around her to fray slightly out of focus. Penny's view was lost immediately after, the virtual space going dark. Malies skin flooded with frost, the lines of code quickly faded back to focus after some time, scrolling just as normal. No POV screens came to life. Slowly however, a faint green glow began to illuminate her face, her eyes rapidly flashing to it.</p><p>"Round Winner," It read. "Congratulations, enjoy your immunity. "</p><p>A smile fractured across her face.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Malie floated softly in the darkness, hair sluggishly undulating around her.</p><p>"What a roller coaster!" Her puppet suddenly cackled as it waved its arms. "Jeez, you couldn't pick a side, could you?</p><p>Malie's eyes sunk, guilt quickly rising inside of her as she again glanced hopefully to the dark space where her video feeds once were.</p><p>"Cheer up," The puppet giggled. "Immunity, you can't be voted off this round! You're on a good streak now, winning the past two games, you just might be an audience favorite!"</p><p>"I...I don’t know, Ponder. W-Why did I receive it? I don't want to be a favorite, how did I win the round?"</p><p>"I don't know, I'm enjoying the fake suspense." Ponder snickered. "Did John and his friends die? Oh gosh, I don't know. It's not like he has main character syndrome or anythi-"</p><p>"I would also like to know this." A voice spoke up, John's POV flickering into view through dust and grit. "Because you sure did a crappy job of killing me if that was the goal."</p><p>Malie's eyes widened.</p><p>"Oh, newbie!" Malie's puppet giggled. "Speak of the devil, you did well for yourself."</p><p>"W-Who is that?" John stammered, unable to see into Malie's space.</p><p>"You’ll get to know me just fine." Ponder cackled. "I'm also attaching to your hand now, you know? Malie and I gotta bounce, you go ahead and meet us there when you're done with your whole, "First story arc" conclusion. The overall story is just beginning John, and I wouldn’t expect you to be the only main character the entire time. You're in for a rude awakening, Mr. Matthews, but it’s good to have you on board regardless."</p><p>With a sudden clap of black distortive air, Malie and Ponder imploded from view. John's UI finally snapped back to normal, as the turquoise text flickered from existence.</p><p>Back in the splice shelter he blinked several times to orient himself, finding that the splice warning had disappeared, the dust around him softly settling. Groans emanated from behind him in the mist, figures helping each other to their feet all around.</p><p>John slowly and nervously glanced down to his hand, admittedly unsurprised to see the rabbit softly staring directly back at him with its eyeless face.</p><p>"The name's Ponder." The puppet grinned like a big, exited dog. "We're about to have a lot of fun, John. We puppets are all connected, fead by the same AI, talking to one of us means you're talking to all of us. We know everything that's happening, everywhere, at any time in a simplified, linear progression."</p><p>John was already searching around for Lily, finding that his arm was frighteningly heavy with the massive hunk of metal on it, yet surprisingly easy to wield, the pain in his damaged hand a memory of the past.</p><p>"Of course once we make you an official contestant," Ponder continued, fighting to remain in John's view as he looked around. "You’ll only be able to talk to me, you're own personal version of Ponder I. We know everything but, we'll only tell you stuff we want you to know. Either to make the story arc more interesting or to shove some plot twists down the viewers throats."</p><p>John finally spotted Lily, legs pivoting to run towards her before a jolt of electrifying pain stunned him where he stood.</p><p>"Yo, I'm talking to you." Ponder frowned. "Are you always so disrespectful to hand puppets? Your sis is fine. Did I mention the whole omnipotent thing? You've got nothing to worry about now."</p><p>John glanced down to the furry creature, distrust clearly written across his face.</p><p>"Distrust clearly written across his face," Ponded quoted, "I get it, you got some understandable trust issues, but I'm telling the truth. To be honest, I don't give a shoot if you believe it or not. If you have unfinished business here before you go, be my guest, but Lily is gonna take a few hours to wake up, and a week or so of intensive care before she's back to herself. What kind of attention span do you think our viewers have, John?"</p><p>John glanced back to his sister's crumbled form, teeth gritted.</p><p>"Teeth gritted," Ponder quoted again, "Speaking of plot twists, I decided I'm bored after all. You seem like a pretty straightforward character, John. Motivated to help others but often held back by your own fear. Can't wait for you, the classic reluctant hero type, to be through into a world where you're not protected by your main character status."</p><p>"You keep talking about that." John shook his head, "What does that mean, "Main Character"?"</p><p>"Of course it's hard to see from your perspective." Ponder giggled, "Every dimension has its own main character, John. You might think yourself human, but main characters are monsters in their own right. What other being could adapt to a situation so quickly and come out victorious against all odds?"</p><p>John watched Eric and Penny loom out of the fog, immediately running to Lily in his absence.</p><p>"Mimics, like AVA over there you just sliced and diced," Ponder continued, "Can be pretty hardy. They can’t ie from blood loss alone, nor will loosing any limb effect them, but you, John. Here, in your home dimension you possess an immunity that's hard to match. You cannot be killed if it doesn't complete your character arc."</p><p>"Character arc?" John spoke, "Do you think this is some kind of movie?"</p><p>Penny's dark blue eyes flashed to John in concern as she knelt beside Lily. She watching as he seemed to be talking to no one, moving the puppet around as if putting on a show for himself.</p><p>"Oh no, it's very real." Ponder's paws rubbed together as he spoke, "I'm sure we could classify it as a medical condition if we wanted, though I would consider it more of a dimensional anomaly. Life has been all about you here since we started, but your about to competing in a game where everyone is a main character in their own world. Therefore no one it."</p><p>"I-I've never been important," John shook his head, "My life isn't anything special, until now I haven't even-"</p><p>"Yeah, see? I'm bored again." Ponder tapping its head softly, "See, I know I'm right, so listening to you talk is... kinda worthless, right?"</p><p>John's lips pursed.</p><p>"J-John." Penny nervously spoke, having stood up and walk slightly closer. She looked like she was about to throw up again.</p><p>"John, I can't feel a pulse." Ponder mocked, folding its arms.</p><p>"I-I can't feel a pulse." Penny continued, eyes deepened into abysmal worry. "You're sister..."</p><p>"Ah, don't worry, she just doesn't know the first damn thing about first aid." Ponder talked over her, "Eric is about to find it."</p><p>"I-I think it might be okay." John nervously responded to Penny, dropping the rabbit.</p><p>He was horrified to see her flinch away as he moved the device, he gaze flashing nervously to it as it swung softly back and forth at his side.</p><p>"Got it!" Eric cried out, "She's faint, but still here. Someone help me get together a stretcher!"</p><p>"Oh, thank God." Penny squirmed, watching more people rush to Lily’s side as she turned back to John. "I-I thought…" Her words died out as her eyes again focused of the puppet, fear coloring her face a bone white. "Are, you okay? W-What is that thing?"</p><p>"She'll learn soon enough." Ponder chuckled, "We are going to start broadcasting new dimensions since you've now joined us in our game. After all, if you were a part of this dimension, wouldn't you want to know that your entire planet is a to be destroyed if you loose?"</p><p>John paled, pupils constricting.</p><p>"And we finally get to the plot twist!" The rabbit giggled. "Hey, this game has bigger stakes that you could possibly imagined. You thought you saved your little school friends, but it came at the cost of throwing your planet into the ring as a bargaining chip? That's devious! You solely represent represent the whole of your dimension, a dimension that dies the minute you do. Funny how leaving out information until it's too late to back down works, huh?</p><p>"J-John?" Penny pressed, apprehensively crouching down to try and make out what he was listening to intently to. "Are you okay?"</p><p>Ponder cackled with hysterical laughter. "Welcome to act 2!"</p><p>John's terrified eyes flashed to Penny, skin paling to a sickly grey.</p><p>"I...I'm sorry." His words were cold and lay dead in his throat. Penny was nearly knocked of her feet as John suddenly split apart with a blinding flash of warped air, the sound of the implosion shattering the ceiling tiles above.</p><p>John had disappeared, Penny's frantic eyes now staring at an empty space in front of her that softly spewed toxic smoke.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Lily’s eyes shuttered, lids slowly opening with great effort. Gears and diodes shifted intermittently to keep her vision focused as she slowly looked around the room. Harsh, fluorescent lighting dotted the ceiling above her, hospital curtains following small, metal tracks through her gaze.</p><p>She tried to sit up, only to find that her neck was in a large brace. Her delicate movements became frantic, until she finally spied a remote by her hand. Her vision glitched with a fake, electronic field of view, her eyelids constantly shifting to try and count for it. Her fingers hesitantly reached forwards, slipping along the remote's surface several times before she finally managed to grasp it.</p><p>A TV droned softy in her AR view, tracked to the far wall at the end of her bed. The bed made a soft whirring noise as she adjusted the back to sit herself up as she stared at the screen.</p><p>She appeared to be in a daze, mechanical eyes not really processing anything until the display suddenly shocked her back to reality. There, in the middle of the screen, was a large rabbit puppet.</p><p>"And for our viewers just now conveniently waking up from a small coma," The creature's mouth flopped soundlessly, subtleties making up for the lack of voice. "Let’s do a quick recap of the game's structure, and this week's challenge."</p><p>The camera gittered with violent distortions.</p><p>"This game is divided into rounds, each taking place in a different dimension with a set time limit and goal." The creature continued, graphics filling the screen to illustrate its point.</p><p>"Players are assigned a different partner each round, and must work together to complete that round's assigned task."</p><p>The camera slowly paned in a circle, eight silhouetted figures standing in the darkness.</p><p>"At the game end vote after each round," Text continued beneath the footage. "Views across all eight dimensions will decide which player to eliminate by popular vote."</p><p>The screen sparked with red, the creature jumping back into frame with a maniacal grin.</p><p>"The eliminated player is killed in a spectacular manor," The creature waved its fuzzy arms. "And their home dimension is destroyed. Nine billion souls gone in a flash, what a way to go!"</p><p>The word "Bummer" flashed across the screen in red.</p><p>"However," The puppet cackled, grabbing at the lens, "Players can earn immunity from elimination in one of two ways."</p><p>Whoever was holding the camera seemed to be having a good deal of difficulty keeping the puppet in frame as it flailed around.</p><p>"Completing the challenge successfully will grant both players on the team immunity." Text continued beneath the footage. "But that's not all."</p><p>The screen flashed back to graphics, four pairs of two stick men figures populating the screen.</p><p> "Each round," The text glittered, "A random number of teams will have an added difficulty."</p><p>On two of the groups, one of the stick figures turned red, the other tinting a dark blue.</p><p>"Teammates might just be assigned to kill their partners!" The rabbit giggled, "No players will know their partner's roles, and red players will be informed of theirs. If a red player betrays their partner before the time is up, or before a team completes the round goal, they alone will win immunity and end the round automatically."</p><p>One of the red stick figures stabbed the blue one in the back, giving a big thumbs up to the camera. "Round End" flashed in white.</p><p>"However," The puppet nodded, the dead stick figure resetting to a standing position. "If a blue player is certain their partner is actually a red, they can win the round by turning the tables!"</p><p>The blue figure pulled out a comically small swiss army knife, punching the red player to the ground and stabbing them repeatedly in the head.</p><p>"Player killing is strictly forbidden outside of these circumstances." The creature's ears flopped. "If, for example, a player thinks their partner is red for that round, kills them, and turns out to be wrong, they will face immediate elimination. Player-to-Player violence on the other hand is highly encouraged. Non life threatening injuries and torture can be a great way to limit other team's successes, or extract whether or not your partner is a red."</p><p>The puppet gestured the camera back to the eight silhouettes, remaining in the corner of the screen to pick up a fuzzy, toy microphone.</p><p>"That's enough exposition for now." It smiled brightly. "Let’s take a look at last week's winner. Everyone's favorite poltergeist from dimension CHDIS1, Malie Lau!</p><p>One of the silhouettes suddenly shuttered to life, projecting her in the 3D space as if a holographic image. Her haunting eyeless sockets darted away from the camera, crossed arms pressed uncomfortably against her sides.</p><p>"A red player last week," The puppet continued, "Malie entered with her teammate, Rositsa Dolina, with the assignment of infiltrating and detonating the fusion core of a reactor in dimension 8SD. The team scrambled to get past the heavy security, only to have this manipulative poltergeist kill Rosie and claim victory seven minutes into the round!"</p><p>Malie's image flickered, her hair quavering softly.</p><p>"With the added winner bonus," Ponder continued, "Her and her teammate this round, AVA, were granted early access for this week's goal: to kill dimension C5's protagonist without directing harming him."</p><p>The puppet chucked its microphone across the room, clasping its hands together in glee.</p><p>"Of course, you won't see AVA here this week!" It snickered, another player suddenly being illuminated by bright, overhead lights.</p><p>"A red player twice in a row, an impressive twist strategy, Malie worked with the dimension's protagonist to kill her partner and win the round yet again."</p><p>John winced under the bright lights, his gaze flashing in horror and betrayal to Malie.</p><p>On the hospital bed, Lily nearly choked as she recognized John's face.</p><p>"In an unprecedented turn of events however," Ponder cackled, "The protagonist of C5 has entered the game in AVA's place, making this the first round in which there will be, no elimination vote!"</p><p>Malie's puppet lifted a large, metallic claw from under its body, bopping her on the head with it.</p><p>"Making you immunity unless." Ponder chuckled, "Did you do that on purpose you silly? Selfish actions aren't going to get you very far you know!"</p><p>John's gaze softened, Malie sinking back.</p><p>"And of course," The puppet in front of the screen cheered, "C5 dimension is now a first time subscriber, championing their very own, John Matthews. An American teenager to represent an entire global dimension? That seems about right, nothing weird or self-absorbed about that!"</p><p>Malie and John's lights flicked off, the eight players again bathed in shadow.</p><p>"And now for our new viewers," Ponder continued, pointing to the first contest in line, "Let's see who your dimension is up again C5! Now contestants, I hope you all practiced your speeches. Keep in mind your audience is human, and tailor them accordingly. I should remind you that these people of C5 will probably end up voting to decide your fate, so the more you can suck up to them, the better, no? Things are about to get…<br/>character driven!"</p><p>The first circle sparked to life, blinding spotlight illuminating a figure that stood hunched in a large, yellow raincoat. The hood was over their face, some sort of black dress slightly protruding from under the bulky material to cover her spindly legs. As she slowly lifted her head, blinding eyes flashed into view, one a golden yellow, the other a celadon blue.</p><p>"From dimension CYHO1," Ponder nodded excitedly, "We have Halogen Fear, the queen of a siren colony. Royalty spoiled but tactfully gifted, she can mimic any sound and possess neurotoxin loaded needles in her wrists to disorientate her prey and lure them to their deaths."</p><p>"A proclivity to greet you C5," The girl spoke calmly with a sly grin, saliva dripping softly down her chin. "I'm induced you will find that you'd rather watch your own dimension burn than see me fall."</p><p>Her grin was filled with needle teeth, her tongue running softly along them.</p><p>"I'm excited to feel your unending devotion," She continued, "We cannot be made torpid."</p><p>"Confident words!" Ponder cheered, "Confident, weird words… but close enough! Let's keep in mind, sirens do not possess any inherently supernatural armor, die from anything that would kill a normal human.<br/>With that said, let's move one!"</p><p>The next figure was illuminated as the light over Halogen went dark, glowing eyes continuing to pierce in through the darkness.</p><p>The next creature stood silently with intense stoicism, head bowed as her black hair strung down over her face. She wore tattered scrubs with a faint twelve printed in red text. From her back, four chain tendrils seemed to be physically rupturing from her flesh, coiling down to the ground where they ended in horrific speared tips.</p><p>"Kali Aimes," Ponder cheered, "Otherwise known as subject twelve. Dimension CD13 has a bit of a problem with parasitic creatures seeking to overtake humanity. The parasites kill off a female host, continuing to puppet the corpse and using the once human brain as a factory to produce a telekinetic phenomenon, known as matter distortion. Kali is a text subject, the government's half-assed attempt to combat the threat, by weaponizing parasite infected individual for their own use. She possess volatile telekinetic powers through which she influences four chain tendrils."</p><p>"I am subject 12," The creature spoke coldly without a shred of emotion. "Weapon of mass destruction."</p><p>The silence hung in the air for some time as if something was supposed to happen, but it seemed the girl was done. </p><p>"Riiiight," Ponder hurried to fill in the awkward silence. "Well, she's clearly got a lot to say. Anyway, let's keep in mind that, as a paralytic corpse, Kali cannot be killed by most conventional means. Her matter distortion means she subconsciously redirects objects traveling fast enough to kill her, and can heal major life threatening injuries within seconds, including loss of limb and organ failure. She is however vulnerable to knifes and slow moving objects at the base of her spine, where the parasite resides. With that said, lets keep this rolling!"</p><p>The light flicked off, the next one erupting to life.</p><p>"SKETCH!" The figure cheered before Ponder could even get a word in. "I'm a mimic, but mostly I'm your friend!"</p><p>The creature had managed to stuff itself inside normal, human clothing with the fashion sense of an eight year old princess. Its bloodshot eyes were devoid of pupils, linen colored irises encompassing the majority of its sclera. Its clawed hands held room for only four fingers, gangly limbs making it look like the most nightmarish grade schooler in existence.</p><p>"Hi C5!" She continued, excitement and energy frighteningly limitless, "Six out of eight dimensions officially endorse me as the most fun contestant, let's make that seven! Follow me on Optical and Instafilter @SketchP-"</p><p>"Sketch is a mimic, as she so aptly blurted out." Ponder's forehead creased. "It can take the form of any humanoid creature and apparently has a desperate attention complex."</p><p>"I'm dying for your approval!" She winced out in a cheery voice, "Literally! Tune in Tangent Weekdays a 5AR to see me read fan letters. You might even get a chance to be on the show wi-"</p><p>Her own puppet electrified her with a loud static pop. Her eye twitched as she begrudgingly sunk back, giving a cutesy wave to the camera.</p><p>"T-shirts available online." She whispered with a wink.</p><p>The light flicked off, illuminating the next contestant. Or rather, the figure remained a silhouette despite the light being on them.</p><p>White circled eyes and a cartoony smile spilled from the blackness.</p><p>"This contest won't give us his name." Ponder again frowned. "So we refer to him as Door Guy."</p><p>"Yo, C5." Door Guy waved his puppeted hand. "Man, this John guy here seems hella chill. Like low-key, we could be best friends. You and me C5, we're go'n places, you know?"</p><p>"Door Guy," Ponder signed, "Like many of our contests, can mimic any human voice. He also possess supernatural strength, and a knack for pranks."</p><p>"But my most damning aspect?" Door Guy nodded with a big grin, looking around the space as if waiting for someone to fill in his sentence.</p><p>"My good looks!" He threw his arms down, "Come on guys! What, were you stuck deciding between that and just, my overall charm? It's a tough choice, I understand."</p><p>"Sarah Duffy is up next!" Ponder cheered, the light landing on a girl with sleek black hair and narrowed steely blue eyes.</p><p>In the hospital, Lily again was dumbfounded.</p><p>"Sarah? She looked just like-"</p><p>"From dimension C6." Ponder continued, "This Sarah and our newest contestant, John, are practically dimensional family! The only difference between their worlds is that, well... this Sarah is still alive."</p><p>Ponder chuckled, but Sarah didn't seem to be having anything to do with it.</p><p>"Listen C5," She spoke to the cameras, shifting the tone dramatically. "Ponder is going to try and prove to you that you are actually part of the game. He is going to set off several splices in populated areas to do so. You have to get to shelter now!"</p><p>"Whoa! Now, now." Ponder shook his head in front of the lens. "Sarah, is that really the speech you practiced?"</p><p>Sarah snapped, flipping him the bird as she faced back toward the cameras. "Listen. Any of you watching this broadcast now, this is not a joke! This broadcast has been hacked into every network in your dimension, it's not a fucking prank!"</p><p>"Kinda ruining the feel of the show, right?" Ponder sighed, the puppet in her hand whirring to life. "They're not gonna believe you until I show 'em, why waste your time?"</p><p>"It happened to my dimension!" Sarah cried, still addressing the cameras. "Stop sitting there and run! Don't play into this sick carnival of freaks! You have to listen to me!"</p><p>"You done yet?" The puppet in her hand mimed, looking at its wrist to check the time. "Kinda feel like you're done now."</p><p>"This isn't fucking funny!" Sarah snapped, slamming her puppet against the wall behind her, metal screeching with the impact.</p><p>"Fuck you, Ponder, and C5, please listen to me! John, tell your dimension the truth!"</p><p>"S-She's right!" John's voice was still in the darkness. "Lily, Eric, Penny, everyone who knows me, this is not a joke! Get to shelter now! Call everyone you know and tell them to do the same! I'm real, this is real!"</p><p>The dead silence in the room lasted for what felt like an eternity before it was broken by Ponder inhaling, then exhaling a shaky sigh, slicking back his uneven ears.</p><p>"Cool, cool." Ponder nodded. "That wasn't over dramatic or anything, moving right along. You can tell that even though Sarah is human, she's got some fight in her. She's not wrong either. I'm going to obliterate a few of your capital cities around the globe to, "prove a point" at the end of this broadcast. That's not information I'm trying to keep from you, I admit it openly. Too bad I'm right like usual and none of you sad saps will actually believe me till it happens though. People tend not to believe a rabbit puppet when it makes death threats... not until they learn that is."</p><p>Sarah’s teeth gritted, the light on her flickering off, only to relight on yet another Sarah next to her.</p><p>This Sarah however, flinched at the encounter, shying away. She didn't say a word.</p><p>"And this," Ponder smiled. "Is an interesting matchup indeed. From dimension CACLS1, welcome to another human, an alternative version of Sarah. It's easy to be so naive and, "oh, get out, your city's are gonna blow up", when your upbringing was fine and dandy, but circumstances can break a person. It can warp them into something completely different with the same face. To avoid confusion however, we tend to nickname this Sarah… Cold."</p><p>Cold didn't say anything, a fuzzy wool hat perched haphazardly upon her head. Her eyes were ringed with grime and sleep deprivation.</p><p>"December 18, 2048 may not mean much to your dimensions," Ponder grinned. "But to Cold's home dimension, that marks the Jeffco massacre. Thirteen students, two faculty, and two uninvolved adults found dead and dismembered one frigid winter day in a quiet, sleepy town."</p><p>Cold seemed to be looking through the floor, unresponsive.</p><p>"They say human is a relative term." Ponder giggled. "I must admit, I personally know a lot of monsters that have killed, way less."</p><p>The light flicked off, briefly illuminating both John and Malie again.</p><p>"And of course, you know these two by now." Ponder quickly summed up, "Your very own human contestant, and a poltergeist respectively."</p><p>The lights of the room switched to red, illuminating all eight contestants.</p><p>"Red means bad!" The puppet at the corner at the screen cheered, bringing up another soft, felt prop of comical proportions. "No elimination vote this week, but we're not gonna leave you guys hanging! We still get a bang to end this week's show!"</p><p>The prop was a massive, red button, not even connected to anything.</p><p>"The loser of this round, AVA, is from dimension C2Y4," The puppet grinned widely, placing its hand paw on the button. "Let’s take a quick tour, shall we?"</p><p>"Dimension C2Y4," An overly robust narrator voice said, as if it were a travel commercial, "A C-Class mirror earth dimension of sprawling industry and seven point four billion souls."</p><p>The camera panned over scenery that was almost identical to the Earth John and Lily knew, perhaps a decade or two in the past. Cars drove like tiny beetles along freeways, towering skyscrapers doting to horizon.</p><p>"Let’s take a look at some dogs, Ponder grinned, teeth sharpening. "Maybe some puppies!"</p><p>"Dogs!" The screen flashed with a retro eighties style graphic, the camera cutting to a dog park with a slightly overcast sky. People casually strolled along, several different breeds of dogs romping through the grass.</p><p>"Mimics are feared and ostracized," Narrator continued, "Being a mere dimension like C5, much of the population is human. Mimics like AVA would have lived a life of undetected solitude, preying on lonely humans that strayed too far into their territory."</p><p>"Looks like things are about to get a heck of a lot worse." Ponder waved its arms, it's face bowed, hands slowly circling around the button. "Of course, that was all pre-roll footage." It softly continued, "They know this is coming, they're watching this show too. Let's go to the live footage, shall we?"</p><p>It's tiny hand slammed against the button as the camera focused live on a crowd shot in some American city. People were clustered close together, faces white with terror as they watched the show spelling their demise.</p><p>Like a virus, red immediately began spreading through the crowd as their eyes displayed splice warnings, one after the other. The camera began slowly panning out as several people saw their own faces on their UI's, turning to the camera and waving their arms frantically in hysteria. Tears rolled down like water, some people simply sinking to the ground, being immediately trampled running feet.</p><p>The camera cut back to the same highway shot from earlier, the roadway now clustered with smoldering carnage as dark silhouettes ran in every direction.</p><p>The camera again cut to a large city with signage in Japanese, massive LED displays on a building glitching with overflowing splice warnings. One screen in particular showed a picture of AVA, her grinning face plastered with a massive "eliminated" sign.</p><p>People below stood silently and stoically, heads bowed. On several adjacent buildings large posters of Sketch adorned their sides, bright colors depicting her happy, needle smile.</p><p>"Statistically, one hundred and fifty thousand of these suckers would die each day anyway," Ponder pressed the button several more times in impatience. "Makes it not seem so bad, huh?</p><p>Dust and filth suddenly erupted into the air as a massive fissure split across the city. Buildings toppled like dominoes as everything man-made went dark. Lights split from seemingly the core of the Earth, the camera cutting out to a far wider shot as massive waves of distortions seemed to be twisting typography back on itself.</p><p>A quick insert shot showed a small, fuzzy dog yip in terror as the ground scorched black around it, quickly cutting away before the creature’s flesh sheared from its bones.</p><p>"Tasteful animal cruelty!" Text scrolled across the lower third of the screen, before the TV frayed into indistinguishable static with a deafening percussion.</p><p>The planet shuttered as the camera cut out yet further, blisters searing across its surface and countless fire storms sent vaulted crust into the atmosphere as if it were putty.</p><p>"Well… It's a planet, you know?" Ponder sighed as the scene dragged on, "Trust me, that entire hunk of rock is going to completely break apart, but at this scale it's probably gonna take a few days before it actually looks like it.<br/>Either way, everyone's super dead and that's what matters!"</p><p>The lights tinted slightly more red.</p><p>"Uh oh!" Ponder chuckled. "That must mean something slightly worse is going to happen now!"</p><p>It again brought up the button to its face.</p><p>"I know that looked like cheap visual effects to you, C5." Ponder continued, maniacal grin twitching, "Perhaps I should show you it looks, much cooler up close. Just in enough places to get your attention. You'll only get completely destroyed if John here fucks up and loses the game for you. Let's just give you a quick taste so you believe me. You didn't think I would really forget, did ya?"</p><p>His hand steadily approached the button.</p><p>"Wait, No!" John cried out. "Ponder, stop! Don't press that button!"</p><p>"Oh okay, sure." Ponder took a moment to think. "I mean, I guess since you asked. That's good enough for me."</p><p>The puppet shrugged and casually tossed the button to John, who caught the felt device with horrified flails to keep it off the ground.</p><p>"Of course," Ponder continued, suppressing laughter, "That's just a fucking prop! TV isn't real you moron! Jesus Christ, I'm surrounded by idiots. Let's light it up!"</p><p>The show cut out, a nurse's UI frayed back to regular programming as she steadily walked down the isle to Lily’s room.</p><p>"Weird." She thought to herself, flicking through more channels to see news reports already beginning to discuss the hacked broadcast.</p><p>Suddenly, her UI flashed with crimson, words spilling across the bottom.</p><p>"Splice Anomaly Inbound."</p>
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